Books and Movies and Travel - Oh My!
I read some amazing books this summer, mostly non-fiction books in the areas of Women and Gender Studies and Sociology:
Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities by Alexandra Robbins
Robbins followed and interviewed four sorority girls at a southern university over the course of year. These interviews are interspersed with chapters in which she researches various aspects of Greek life - the high number of women in the greek system that have been sexually assaulted by men in the Greek system, for example. It's an incredibly disturbing, and well written, book.
The Purity Myth: How America's Obsession With Virginity is Hurting Young Women by Jessica Valenti
Valenti Writes about how forcing young women to adhere to a model of abstinence, purity, and virginity is ultimately harmful to young women and their development into strong, confident women.
Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement by Kathryn Joyce
I don't know what to say about this book, other than read it. It is incredibly well written, and scary as fuck.
Baghdad Without a Map, and Other Misadventures in Arabia by Tony Horwitz
Tony Horwitz is one of my favorite writers. In the early 1990s, before the Gulf War, he went to his wife to the middle east, where she was working as a foreign correspondent. He traveled all over the middle east, writing for various newspapers, often without a budget. His adventures are bizarre, hilarious, and totally unexpected.
Confederates in the Attic by Tony Horwitz
Probably my favorite book EVER. Horwitz traveled all over the south, visiting Civil War battlefields, landmarks, and museums, and meeting people for whom the "War Between the States" or "The War of Northern Agression" is still a daily reality. He meets a Scarlet O' Hara impersonator whose biggest fans are Japanese tourists, a former hippie turned white supremacist (who still has a pony tail, loves Star Trek, and only eats organic vegetables), and a 'hard core' civil war reenactor who will do anything, including sleep outside in freezing cold weather and starve himself until he is gaunt, to go that extra step towards true authenticity. Besides introducing bizarre characters and funny moments, Horwitz also beautifully conveys a sense that the modern-day south is really like another country, as foreign as Germany or France.
Right now, I'm about to start Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich, but since I have very little free time, it might take me awhile.
I was going to write about movies I've seen and places I want to go to, but this post is long enough. I'll write about the other stuff later.
Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities by Alexandra Robbins
Robbins followed and interviewed four sorority girls at a southern university over the course of year. These interviews are interspersed with chapters in which she researches various aspects of Greek life - the high number of women in the greek system that have been sexually assaulted by men in the Greek system, for example. It's an incredibly disturbing, and well written, book.
The Purity Myth: How America's Obsession With Virginity is Hurting Young Women by Jessica Valenti
Valenti Writes about how forcing young women to adhere to a model of abstinence, purity, and virginity is ultimately harmful to young women and their development into strong, confident women.
Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement by Kathryn Joyce
I don't know what to say about this book, other than read it. It is incredibly well written, and scary as fuck.
Baghdad Without a Map, and Other Misadventures in Arabia by Tony Horwitz
Tony Horwitz is one of my favorite writers. In the early 1990s, before the Gulf War, he went to his wife to the middle east, where she was working as a foreign correspondent. He traveled all over the middle east, writing for various newspapers, often without a budget. His adventures are bizarre, hilarious, and totally unexpected.
Confederates in the Attic by Tony Horwitz
Probably my favorite book EVER. Horwitz traveled all over the south, visiting Civil War battlefields, landmarks, and museums, and meeting people for whom the "War Between the States" or "The War of Northern Agression" is still a daily reality. He meets a Scarlet O' Hara impersonator whose biggest fans are Japanese tourists, a former hippie turned white supremacist (who still has a pony tail, loves Star Trek, and only eats organic vegetables), and a 'hard core' civil war reenactor who will do anything, including sleep outside in freezing cold weather and starve himself until he is gaunt, to go that extra step towards true authenticity. Besides introducing bizarre characters and funny moments, Horwitz also beautifully conveys a sense that the modern-day south is really like another country, as foreign as Germany or France.
Right now, I'm about to start Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich, but since I have very little free time, it might take me awhile.
I was going to write about movies I've seen and places I want to go to, but this post is long enough. I'll write about the other stuff later.